CBS licenses library content to Hulu

CBS, long the only holdout among the Big Four to Hulu distribution, is cracking.

Though the network still isn’t licensing its original shows for rebroadcast on the site, which is jointly owned by Fox parent News Corp., NBCUniversal and ABC parent Disney, the network has signed a deal that will allow Hulu Plus subscribers to stream content from the CBS library.

More than 2,600 shows including “I Love Lucy,” “Medium,” “The Twilight Zone” and “Numb3rs” will be made available to the site’s premium subscribers in January.

It’s the first time that CBS has licensed its content to a site it is not affiliated with, and it could signal changes to come.

Web video has become increasingly popular, and the widespread deployment of it is considered vital to the continued relevance of the broadcast networks.

But CBS has long eschewed invitations to join Hulu, instead preferring to stream its shows through its own site only.

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